What motivates individuals to engage in role-incongruent knowledge transfer? Drawing on role congruity theory, we characterize role-incongruent (“reverse”) knowledge transfer as being based on an incongruity of the functional and social roles of the actors. Further integrating status characteristics theory and relational demography, we propose affect- and cognition-based trust as well as age as determinants of individuals’ engaging in such reverse knowledge transfer. In so doing, we distinguish between the social roles of trainers and apprentices, as these social roles carry implications for which behaviors are regarded as role-congruent or -incongruent. We test the resulting conceptual framework based on individual-level data from 442 participants (338 apprentices and 104 trainers) in multiple organizations within the context of vocational education training. The results largely support our hypotheses: For trainers, affect-based trust in apprentices and own age are positively associated with role-incongruent knowledge seeking, and the latter relationship is positively moderated by apprentice age. For apprentices, affect- and cognition-based trust are positively related to their role-incongruent knowledge sharing, but age has no significant effect. Finally, supplementary analyses document that the antecedents of reverse knowledge transfer differ from those factors that are significantly related to role-congruent knowledge exchange.

是什么促使个人从事与角色不一致的知识转移？借鉴角色一致性理论，我们将角色不一致（“反向”）知识转移描述为基于参与者的功能和社会角色的不一致。进一步整合状态特征理论和关系人口学，我们提出基于情感和认知的信任以及年龄作为个人参与这种反向知识转移的决定因素。这样做时，我们区分了培训师和学徒的社会角色，因为这些社会角色会影响哪些行为被视为角色一致或不一致。我们在职业教育培训的背景下，根据来自多个组织的 442 名参与者（338 名学徒和 104 名培训师）的个人层面数据测试了由此产生的概念框架。结果在很大程度上支持了我们的假设：对于培训师来说，基于情感的对学徒和自己年龄的信任与角色不一致的知识寻求正相关，而后者的关系受到学徒年龄的正调节。对于学徒，基于情感和认知的信任与其角色不一致的知识共享呈正相关，但年龄没有显着影响。最后，补充分析表明，逆向知识转移的前因不同于那些与角色一致的知识交换显着相关的因素。对于培训师来说，基于情感的对学徒和自己年龄的信任与角色不一致的知识寻求呈正相关，而后者的关系受学徒年龄正调节。对于学徒，基于情感和认知的信任与其角色不一致的知识共享呈正相关，但年龄没有显着影响。最后，补充分析表明，逆向知识转移的前因不同于那些与角色一致的知识交换显着相关的因素。对于培训师来说，基于情感的对学徒和自己年龄的信任与角色不一致的知识寻求呈正相关，而后者的关系受学徒年龄正调节。对于学徒，基于情感和认知的信任与其角色不一致的知识共享呈正相关，但年龄没有显着影响。最后，补充分析表明，逆向知识转移的前因不同于那些与角色一致的知识交换显着相关的因素。但年龄没有显着影响。最后，补充分析表明，逆向知识转移的前因不同于那些与角色一致的知识交换显着相关的因素。但年龄没有显着影响。最后，补充分析表明，逆向知识转移的前因不同于那些与角色一致的知识交换显着相关的因素。